Now Playing (28/04/09)
By Steven Perdikis - Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:30pm
It's nearly the end of April, and it is a Tuesday once more, which means it is time for another instalment of Now Playing. That means, once again, you'll have to put up with a selection of the most interesting, boring, or broken trailers that we can find on the file mirror that have been recently added.
This week, our rant filled adventures will take first revisit the 1940's mental, sea-faring battlefield, before admiring some less than typical montage of horror from an open world adventure. Then, we go slightly insane over some singing creatures in search of musical artefacts before regaining some measure of sanity by watching time lapse art footage. We then end by returning to smash some tennis balls at random things.
World War II resulted in the loss of a lot of life. As we know, life is a pretty special thing. The United States forces were hit by some incredibly loyal Japanese troops during the war, the fearsome Kamikaze pilots, who, with complete disregard for their own life (and the ability to follow orders) were told to fly their planes into US Warships, in a bid to create great carnage. Battlestations: Pacific will illustrate this senseless waste of life, as suggested by the latest trailer. If gamers are ordered to engage in Kamikaze acts during the Japanese campaign, I can't quite see how the mission can progress beyond that point, short of a "Mission Accomplished" screen as the conclusion to a campaign in which the player is used as a Kamikaze pilot - that, or they don't actually die, and instead burn horribly in pain for some time and the rest of the game comprises of the horrors of being a severely burnt prisoner of war restricted to a nothing more than a hospital bed. It could even ship with a controller that super heats and actually burns your hands. Now that's immersion, right?
Download Battlestations: Pacific 'Kamikaze' Trailer
Pulled screaming from the womb of what was once Sierra, Prototype is now shaping up to be a decent game, for those that enjoy strolls along the beach at midnight, looking for the most fitting spot to dispose of a body, or those that like to punch tanks, kill a helicopter crew in mid-flight and take over the controls, or extend an unhealthy number of sharp and deadly tendrils from the body, impaling and showering in blood all those unfortunate enough to be in the same neighbourhood. The latest trailer doesn't show off any gameplay footage, but makes me pine for more trailers that show off the artistic style of a game instead of the boring gameplay footage or developer interviews which so often populate the news. Okay, I lie. Those other trailers aren't boring, they're just more boring than the style in the trailer below.
Download Prototype 'Montage' Trailer
Pata-Pata-pata-pon. Pata-Pata-pata-poon. Pata-Pata-pata-pooooooon. Pata-Pata-*snip* There's not much to say about this one other than the cult like chanting of the people of Earthend in this new trailer is compelling, and addictive. In fact, the trailer can be watched so many times that before long, you'll begin to fear for your sanity, with your thought pattern slowly devolving to chant in pursuit of these curious creatures, all the while tapping away at your keyboard in time with their prancing. If you'll excuse me, I must go smash my PSP lest it sing more of these mysterious and outspoken creatures. It is a pity that the UMD for the title can't be (too easily) destroyed to prevent its insanity from infecting the world. I think that act would make some people around these parts unhappy though.
Download Patapon 2 'Multiplayer' Trailer
Ever wondered how exactly concept art is produced for video games? Look no further than this trailer, which shows the complete production of a of a piece of concept art, presented in a convenient, easy to follow time-lapse format. Watch the magical canvas of Photoshop as it transforms from stark whiteness to a mass of glorious pixels and colour, and give much respect to those that have great a mastery of quite possibly the greatest piece of software to have ever existed!
Download Overgrowth 'Concept Art' Trailer
What's all this then? Using your tennis skills to fight off alien invasions? To befoul neatly stacked drums? To embark on other sorts of endeavours such as curling and bowling? In a tennis game? Are they mad?!!?! I can't answer those questions, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun - especially if you get bored of the ... actual tennis component of the game. Heck, I bet most of these could be released as digitally distributed arcade games and would sell for a tidy profit to the deranged and interested alike. Mini-games attached to a larger game often do well. It's like that love you develop for the hacking mini-game in Mass Effect, I swear.
Download Virtua Tennis 2009 'Court Games' Trailer Part 2
This week's pick is the Terminator Salvation 'Co-Op' Trailer, which seems to indicate that not nearly enough trailer makers take note of the perfectly valid criticisms that fly from my keyboard in frustration to formulate Now Playing each week. Yes, okay. Your game has co-op. But the LAST thing we want is to see in trailers is WHAT BOTH PLAYERS ARE DOING AT ONCE. It is confusing, and frankly, we don't care. We'd rather know if the game is balanced well enough for co-op to be fun, and that your team mate being injured or dying doesn't suddenly ruin the experience for everyone. We also demand the ability to use VOIP to be condescending to our friends when we fail, blaming them for not shooting the person or machine responsible for our deaths. Finally, we also demand the ability to ridicule plot and the character's actions as we play.
If that's not to your tastes, you can always check out some of thefinely crafted, hand picked trailers listed below.
This week, our rant filled adventures will take first revisit the 1940's mental, sea-faring battlefield, before admiring some less than typical montage of horror from an open world adventure. Then, we go slightly insane over some singing creatures in search of musical artefacts before regaining some measure of sanity by watching time lapse art footage. We then end by returning to smash some tennis balls at random things.
Battlestations: Pacific
)
)
)
World War II resulted in the loss of a lot of life. As we know, life is a pretty special thing. The United States forces were hit by some incredibly loyal Japanese troops during the war, the fearsome Kamikaze pilots, who, with complete disregard for their own life (and the ability to follow orders) were told to fly their planes into US Warships, in a bid to create great carnage. Battlestations: Pacific will illustrate this senseless waste of life, as suggested by the latest trailer. If gamers are ordered to engage in Kamikaze acts during the Japanese campaign, I can't quite see how the mission can progress beyond that point, short of a "Mission Accomplished" screen as the conclusion to a campaign in which the player is used as a Kamikaze pilot - that, or they don't actually die, and instead burn horribly in pain for some time and the rest of the game comprises of the horrors of being a severely burnt prisoner of war restricted to a nothing more than a hospital bed. It could even ship with a controller that super heats and actually burns your hands. Now that's immersion, right?
Prototype
)
)
)
Pulled screaming from the womb of what was once Sierra, Prototype is now shaping up to be a decent game, for those that enjoy strolls along the beach at midnight, looking for the most fitting spot to dispose of a body, or those that like to punch tanks, kill a helicopter crew in mid-flight and take over the controls, or extend an unhealthy number of sharp and deadly tendrils from the body, impaling and showering in blood all those unfortunate enough to be in the same neighbourhood. The latest trailer doesn't show off any gameplay footage, but makes me pine for more trailers that show off the artistic style of a game instead of the boring gameplay footage or developer interviews which so often populate the news. Okay, I lie. Those other trailers aren't boring, they're just more boring than the style in the trailer below.
Patapon 2
)
)
)
Pata-Pata-pata-pon. Pata-Pata-pata-poon. Pata-Pata-pata-pooooooon. Pata-Pata-*snip* There's not much to say about this one other than the cult like chanting of the people of Earthend in this new trailer is compelling, and addictive. In fact, the trailer can be watched so many times that before long, you'll begin to fear for your sanity, with your thought pattern slowly devolving to chant in pursuit of these curious creatures, all the while tapping away at your keyboard in time with their prancing. If you'll excuse me, I must go smash my PSP lest it sing more of these mysterious and outspoken creatures. It is a pity that the UMD for the title can't be (too easily) destroyed to prevent its insanity from infecting the world. I think that act would make some people around these parts unhappy though.
Overgrowth
)
)
)
Ever wondered how exactly concept art is produced for video games? Look no further than this trailer, which shows the complete production of a of a piece of concept art, presented in a convenient, easy to follow time-lapse format. Watch the magical canvas of Photoshop as it transforms from stark whiteness to a mass of glorious pixels and colour, and give much respect to those that have great a mastery of quite possibly the greatest piece of software to have ever existed!
Virtua Tennis 2009
)
)
)
What's all this then? Using your tennis skills to fight off alien invasions? To befoul neatly stacked drums? To embark on other sorts of endeavours such as curling and bowling? In a tennis game? Are they mad?!!?! I can't answer those questions, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun - especially if you get bored of the ... actual tennis component of the game. Heck, I bet most of these could be released as digitally distributed arcade games and would sell for a tidy profit to the deranged and interested alike. Mini-games attached to a larger game often do well. It's like that love you develop for the hacking mini-game in Mass Effect, I swear.
While there is literally hundreds of trailers released for games each week, some simply don't make the cut, or try so hard to be good, that I like to make it an effort for those who really want to see them.Didn't Make the Cut
This week's pick is the Terminator Salvation 'Co-Op' Trailer, which seems to indicate that not nearly enough trailer makers take note of the perfectly valid criticisms that fly from my keyboard in frustration to formulate Now Playing each week. Yes, okay. Your game has co-op. But the LAST thing we want is to see in trailers is WHAT BOTH PLAYERS ARE DOING AT ONCE. It is confusing, and frankly, we don't care. We'd rather know if the game is balanced well enough for co-op to be fun, and that your team mate being injured or dying doesn't suddenly ruin the experience for everyone. We also demand the ability to use VOIP to be condescending to our friends when we fail, blaming them for not shooting the person or machine responsible for our deaths. Finally, we also demand the ability to ridicule plot and the character's actions as we play.
If that's not to your tastes, you can always check out some of the
Terminator Salvation 'Co-Op' Trailer
Infinite Space Trailer
Risen 'Port' Trailer
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 'Game Modes' Trailer
Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans
Military Madness 'Gameplay' Trailer
Guitar Hero World Tour 'Mobile' Trailer
Operation 7 Trailer
Zombie Wranglers Trailer
X-Men Origins: Wolverine 'Behind the Scenes' Trailer #4
EA Sports Complex Trailer
Midnight Club: Los Angeles 'Car Pack 2' Trailer
End of Eternity 'Debut' Trailer
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